#citizen engagement

Modern urbanism involves several disciplines beyond architecture and sociology. Often the rules guiding urban development are established taking into account economical and political factors. In a complex scenario where the future of urban areas is more difficult to predict, how policy makers can take into account public participation? Is top-down approach the best way to guarantee […]

A Map of Hutopolis contains the result of a research program about the urban development in China. The book envisions in a map solutions to the problems provoked by the radical development going on in the biggest country in Asia.

Last Saturday 22th took place in Hong Kong the presentation and discussion entitled ‘The People´s Urbanism’, an event organized by AP+E about bottom up approaches part of the last edition of the Hong Kong/Shenzhen Biennale of Urbanism and Architecture (UABB).

The second edition of the [email protected] festival, an event showcasing architecture and industry-related products with a special focus on innovation and education, took place in Beijing last December 5th and 6th. AQSO participated both at the ‘Spanish design in China’ seminar, organized by the Spanish Embassy and the conference ‘Hutong to Hutopolis’ supported by the […]

Transformations, a dialogue about the evolving city is the title of a documentary recently presented by AQSO at the 2013 Beijing Design Week. The movie is conceived as the conclusive chapter of the Hutopolis reseach program launched in 2011 for studying the urban changes on Chinese cities.

City Visions is an exhibition that collects one year of research, experiments and events organized in China and Europe by the Hutopolis research program. Soft and physical urban planning strategies, visions and ideas have been developed taking Beijing as a case study.

It is not easy to see the sky in Beijing. Sometimes because of the storms, sometimes because of the fog and most of the times because of the tangible pollution surrounding the city the atmosphere becomes a ghostly mass in which the buildings are merely glimpsed. At night the stars cannot be seen, only flashing […]

Last February 7th AQSO participated in the ‘Iterate’ workshop in Beijing with a lecture about the changing conditions of the Chinese cities and the progress of the ongoing research program ‘Hutopolis’.

Giannantonio Bongiorno, curator of the exhibition ‘Next stop: Hutopolis‘, presented together with Luis Aguirre Manso the contents of the research that will start next fall about the Chinese urban conditions.

Beijing Design Week is scheduled to be an annual event composed of several sections: a design forum, design exhibitions, workshops, a guest city program, design hops and an annual design award. ‘Next stop: Hutopolis’ is a retrospective on the urban condition of Beijing and specifically its Hutongs.

“Hutopolis” is a research program that aims to investigate new boundaries for the urban development in China. The study intends to re-use and enhance the existing urban framework and networks as a key idea to generate a new evolution of the city. AQSO organises an exhibition curated by Giannantonio Bongiorno and Luis Aguirre, with the […]

On the occasion of the the 70th Anniversary of John Lennon’s Birth, Beijing-based Today art museum organized last October 16th an outdoor event including multimedia video projections, poetry readings, music performances and discussions under the name “old is new“.

Architecture is nearly always the solution of a complex problem, an equation with many variables and which can be resolved in more than one way. It needs to address the programme, the site conditions, be formally expressed and have technical solutions that allow building it, but it must also have an intention or contain an […]

Lynn McMahon participated in the European Forum in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, which discussed the findings of Europan 9. The prize-winning project ‘Interactive Flexibility’ was exhibited at the Forum. This proposal for the development of Slatina Square in Opatija, Croatia, was included in the ‘Public and Private Spaces’ discussion.

The self-sufficient house Harvest Home has been given an award in the ‘2nd Advanced Architecture Contest’, an international competition organized by the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia.

Possibly the first idea of a limit in the historic city was defined by its own walls, which were systematically exceeded and rebuilt to maintain a defensive system. When traditional space evolves and becomes overgrown, urbanism emerges as a discipline, the city is transformed and its limit transforms with it. The increase in population and […]